The Crossbow Doctrine

War is not a game of chess played with universal rules. It is a messy, visceral, and profoundly human endeavor. We are taught that the laws of war-the ethical frameworks that govern our actions-are born of a shared humanity, a collective moral revulsion to certain forms of violence. This book proposes that the truth is far more complex and far more provocative.

From the eleventh-century papal ban on the crossbow to the current international debates over lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS), the history of military ethics reveals a consistent and unsettling pattern. When a new weapon emerges that threatens to fundamentally disrupt the established order, the most powerful military actors rarely respond with a universal sense of moral outrage. Instead, they respond with a selective and strategic form of prohibition. This is what we call the Crossbow Doctrine.

Our research identifies a clear, three-factor pattern for the prohibition of new weapons:

The Democratization of Violence: The new weapon threatens the established military hierarchy by making lethality accessible to a wider, less-skilled group.

Excessive Efficiency: The weapon makes killing "too easy," creating a psychological and moral distance that challenges the established cultural values of warriorhood.

In-Group Vulnerability: The weapon can be used against one's own social or cultural group, threatening a power structure that benefits from a monopoly on certain forms of violence.

Throughout history, this doctrine has been a silent but powerful force. The 1139 Lateran Council banned the use of crossbows as "hateful to God," but only against Christians, allowing their continued use against Muslims during the Crusades. The 1925 Geneva Protocol, a landmark ban on chemical weapons, was enacted after the horrific experience of World War I, yet European powers continued to use them in their colonial campaigns. The 1997 Ottawa Treaty, which banned landmines for humanitarian reasons, has been rejected by major powers who argue that security needs must trump humanitarian law. This history of double standards is not a coincidence; it is a feature of the doctrine itself.

Today, the Crossbow Doctrine is more relevant than ever. The debates over LAWS, often framed in terms of "meaningful human control," are a modern echo of the very same anxieties that led knights to ban the crossbow. We are not banning the cruelest weapons, but the most democratically accessible and culturally disruptive ones-the very weapons that threaten the current power, identity, and exclusive control of dominant military groups.

This book is a challenging read, but an essential one for any military professional seeking to understand the future of warfare. It will force you to question your most deeply held beliefs about military ethics and equip you with a new lens for navigating a world where the lines between human and machine, warrior and civilian, are rapidly blurring. The next great challenge to military authority will not be a physical object, but a new ethical dilemma, and this book will prepare you for it.

Dr. Cor P.M. van Houte, military analyst and author of the Military Science series available on Amazon.